The Attorney General’s Brief Brief on Trump’s Circuit Court Appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court: “It Isn’t,” a Masterstroke?

Trump’s lawyers, in their application to the Supreme Court, argued that a stay of the New York trial court proceedings was necessary to prevent “grave injustice” and harm to the federal government.

Trump told the court that he would try to prosecute the Manhattan district attorney if he was acquitted, and would appeal his conviction. But most of the evidentiary issues are not likely to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, which is usually loath to erase jury verdicts.

This was the only one of Trump’s criminal charges to go to trial, making him the first former or future U.S. president to be convicted of criminal charges.

The Supreme Court ruled last summer that a president has immunity when it comes to prosecution.

In response, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, said that a sentencing before inauguration would preserve the sanctity of the jury’s verdict and the law.

Bragg also warned that any delay would risk punting proceedings for years, until Trump finishes his second presidential term — which would be unfair since Trump himself asked for multiple delays in sentencing.

Since Trump’s conviction in May, Merchan has postponed the sentencing several times, including to avoid any perception of political bias ahead of Election Day, and then to allow Trump to argue he had immunity in the case, based on a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Trump’s lawyers still accused the prosecutor on the case, Bragg, of having political motivations, and argued it was up to appellate courts — and possibly the Supreme Court itself — to weigh in on the presidential immunity claims.

A day after Jimmy Carter’s funeral, where Donald Trump had to hear about all the character traits he lacks, he wasn’t in the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse Friday morning to hear his felony sentence pronounced. He appeared virtually from Mar-a-Lago in front of two American flags, along with his attorney (and nominee for deputy attorney general), Todd Blanche.

This sounds like no punishment at all but was in fact a “masterstroke,” retired New York Judge George Grasso told me as we walked out of the courtroom.

The supremacy clause of the Constitution states that federal law precedence over state law. He ruled that there was only one lawful sentence that avoided intrusive on the highest office of the land.

One of the prosecutors, Josh Steinglass, told the judge that he favored the sentence because it will “cement the defendant’s status as a convicted felon.”

Trump is a felon, but did not commit a crime against the president: Preserving the finality of his presidential obituary

It is possible that the testimony referring to White House conversations fell under Trump’s official duties, and therefore will expunge this stain on his reputation. It is possible Chief Justice John Roberts, in his opinion in the immunity case, will include this under his definition of presumptive immunity.

The 22 witnesses and 500 exhibits that provided a mountain of other evidence used to convict, would have to be ignored if he (or Justice Amy Coney Barrett) had voted differently.

Four knee-bending justices (including one, Samuel Alito, whose recent conversation with Trump further tarnished the court) are apparently happy to protect Trump from any legal accountability at all, even for acts that brought conviction while he was out of office.

That means that preserving Merchan’s sentence will be a close shave. The first paragraph of Donald Trump’s obituary will include the stunning fact that this two-term American president was also a felon.

The former and future president is scheduled to appear in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday for his sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to an adult film star.

Anna Cominsky, director of the criminal defense clinic at New York Law School, said that there was nothing else the defendants could do to impede the president-elect.

“It certainly makes sense that there be some finality to this case because as a nation, we should want to move on, in particular as he assumes the role of president, and be able to look forward to the next four years without this sentence pending,” Cominsky said. There needs to be an end.

The jurors unanimously agreed that Trump lied about the $130,000 payment to Daniels in order to hurt his campaign for president, after about a day of deliberations.

But the conviction appeared to have little impact on Trump’s popularity — and ultimate electoral victory during the 2024 presidential election. He used the legal drama to raise funds for his campaign.